With the recent announcement by Joni Mitchell that she has suffered with this psychosomatic issue for years, it is time once again to talk about echo-chambers, enabling communities and profiteers online and offline.

It's not that conspiracy theory profiteers are disappearing, far from it. Social media has made it easier than ever to make a straw man out of the 24 hour news cycle for those who believe in an all-encompassing conspiracy. Meanwhile, their friends and family trying to convince them otherwise has much the opposite effect.

Written by Derek Hawkins (Washington Post) A Florida woman who claimed the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School was a hoax was sentenced Wednesday to five months in prison for … Continue reading Sandy Hook hoaxer gets prison time for threatening 6-year-old victim’s father

I know a fair amount about conspiracy theories. When I was growing up, my father would regularly allude to any number of possible culprits behind the assassination of President John … Continue reading Getting Specific: Founded and Unfounded Conspiracy Theories and Why it Matters Now.

By Brian Tashman (Right Wing Watch) In recent days a report from Washington D.C.’s Fox affiliate on the death of Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich has dominated the conservative … Continue reading Fox’s Seth Rich Conspiracy Theory Falls Apart: ‘Investigator’ Admits He Has No Evidence

By JAMES DOUBEK (NPR) People are prank calling President Trump’s new office to report illegal “criminal aliens” — just not the type of “aliens” President Trump had in mind when he … Continue reading People Are Reporting Criminal (Space) Aliens To New ICE Hotline

Originally posted by Yahoo7 News Sham miracle healer Belle Gibson is touting the remarkable diet regime similar to the one she said cured her of a brain tumour but also … Continue reading Cancer faker Belle Gibson trumpets the miracle workings of a new herbal-fasting diet

The Oregon Stand-Off: Its Apocalyptic Conspiracist Nature.

In their own words, Ammon Bundy and other co-conspirators have made it clear that the reasons for seizing a government building in a Federal Wildlife Reserve in Oregon involve a significant level of paranoia and a conspiracist worldview. In a press conference aired on FoxNews and posted on Facebook via FoxNews anchor Megan Kelly, Ammon Bundy says the reason for occupying Malheur National Wildlife Reserve is to “restore and defend the Constitution.” These words, when considered critically, expose the levels of confusion, paranoia and hypocrisy inherent in what is only the latest in a long standing feud between the Bundy Family and the rule of law.

What may first come off as a valorous point, a defense of the Constitution, is really a subtext for the much more malignant strain of extremist political thought referred to collectively as the Sovereign Citizen Movement. This movement, with roots in the White Supremacist Movement, has become increasingly prevalent among other extremist groups since the early 2000s. To put it in concise fashion, sovereign citizens do not believe that laws apply to them. A quote from SPLC’s James Timothy Turner further explains:

The contemporary sovereign belief system is based on a decades-old conspiracy theory. At some point in history, sovereigns believe, the American government set up by the founding fathers — with a legal system the sovereigns refer to as “common law” — was secretly replaced by a new government system based on admiralty law, the law of the sea and international commerce. Under common law, or so they believe, the sovereigns would be free men. Under admiralty law, they are slaves, and secret government forces have a vested interest in keeping them that way. Some sovereigns believe this perfidious change occurred during the Civil War, while others blame the events of 1933, when the U.S. abandoned the gold standard.

When Ammon Bundy claims that he will “restore and defend the Constitution” he is hearkening back to the conspiracy theory that says that the Constitution has been secretly circumvented, a hallmark of the Sovereign Citizen Movement. Another hallmark of SCM is psuedo-political double-speak often meant to seem legitimate while still thoroughly unaware of the current interpretation of the law; one prime example of this is Ammon’s brother, Ryan Bundy, explaining how U.S. States are really independent sovereign nations (in the video below).